Sunlight filtered through the leaves, forming dappled patches that fell across the swamp forest. The Moss Monsters, whether intentionally or not, writhed along with the light spots, basking in the precious sunshine.

Chen Yu half-submerged himself in the swamp, his beady eyes peeking out as he watched the Moss Monsters’ movements, looking sneaky as can be.

Not kidding — this marsh truly is a place that can nurture slimes. Slimes and this environment are a perfect match.

From his position he could either attack or retreat; if he couldn’t win, he could slip deeper into the muck. His green body hiding in the swamp made it hard for monsters to detect him.

At first the two Moss Monsters couldn’t see Chen Yu’s trace for a long time and let down their guard, chewing on the acid-melted mud. They had no idea the sly, treacherous slime was still there, staring at them.

He carefully circled around a sunlit patch cast onto the swamp. When he was less than half a meter from his target, he struck.

Swoosh!

One Moss Monster was pierced through and died on the spot. The other was so terrified it left a pool of acid and fled, saving him the trouble of finishing it.

Chen Yu hopped onto a tree root, bouncing as he was about to go grab the corpse.

Suddenly he noticed that the Moss Monsters and the Swamp Worms that had been crawling everywhere just moments ago had all stopped moving, as if the entire world had fallen silent.

“This is bad — there’s a predator.”

His heart lurched; he sensed something was wrong, and then a sharp buzzing filled the air.

Poison-stinger wasps!

While swallowing the Moss Monster and the flying sword, he hurriedly looked up. Between the layers of leaves, three jet-black stinger wasps swooped down.

He had encountered this kind of monster before. Unlike harmless bees, poison-stinger wasps eat flesh! Even their nests are built from rotten meat.

Inside their ringed, flesh-colored waxy tails were multiple sprayable stingers. He’d seen a Swamp Worm several meters away get hit by those stingers; in a blink, its body blackened and yellowed.

There must be a poison-stinger wasp nest in this tree, but leaves blocked his view so he couldn’t see it.

No matter what, the poison-stinger wasp is the overlord here — a gregarious monster he absolutely could not provoke.

Run!

The slime’s fear instinct drove Chen Yu’s body to flee, but he knew slimes made a lot of noise when they ran, easily attracting the wasps. He forced down the instinct, copying other monsters by staying perfectly still, pretending to be dead.

He thought to himself: moss is green, slime is green, they can’t see me, they can’t see me…

Unfortunately, the wasps had already spotted his trail and flew straight over.

“Damn it!”

With so many protein-rich, meaty Moss Monsters around, they ignore those and chase after me, a single slime? Chen Yu cursed his luck and hurriedly bounded toward the swamp.

Clearly the wasps didn’t intend to let him go. From several meters away they lifted their tails and sprayed stingers at him.

Chen Yu jumped aside in terror. Three stingers all embedded into the tree root.

He wasn’t so lucky next round. The wasps could fire stingers in succession. He’d just dodged the first volley when three more stingers were sprayed at him.

At this distance he couldn’t dodge them all!

In desperation, Chen Yu deployed his toothpick flying sword to intercept the stingers in midair.

Two stingers collided with the wooden flying sword; the wooden sword snapped on the spot.

No time to mourn the broken flying sword — one stinger pierced straight through his butt and pinned into the tree root.

[Physical Damage] HP -10!

[Poison Effect] HP -2/sec (lasts 5 seconds)

Pain!

Terrible pain!

That was the last straw convincing him to dive into the swamp.

As he sank slowly into the muck, another volley of stingers sprayed and missed. The wasps beat their wings, circled a few times, then returned to the nest in the tree.

Chen Yu, half-buried in the muck, had no thought for whether the wasps had left. All he could feel was intense pain all over his body.

Looking at the wound, the place the stinger had pierced had already blackened. Thankfully the slime body is soft, so the stinger hadn’t lodged inside. If it had, the consequences would have been grim.

Chen Yu grit his teeth and expelled the blackened gel from his body; only then did the pain gradually ease.

This is the advantage of being a slime: there’s no real concept of permanent injury or sickness. When struck, slimes simply discard gel, shrinking until they reduce to a puddle of water.

Thinking back on that perilous scene, he couldn’t help trembling. If the flying sword hadn’t blocked those two stingers and they’d all been embedded in him, he would’ve had to expel the nutrients from the past half-month along with the gel.

“My flying sword…” Chen Yu felt a pang of regret.

Conditions in Zeyarila couldn’t compare to Xu Xuan Heaven. He’d spent several days selecting that wooden toothpick and used stomach acid to grind it for a long time before it became his weapon. Now the divine weapon was gone; his strength might take a big hit.

“I’ll be back.”

Once he learned more new Dao techniques, he’d make them pay.

He had intended to return straight to the slime nest to digest the Moss Monster inside his stomach, but suddenly recalled the wasps had probably left many stingers behind up there.

“These stingers can pierce wood; they’re probably much harder than my flying sword.”

That thought tempted him.

But he had no way to deal with the wasp venom on those stingers right now. He couldn’t touch them; without being able to touch them, he couldn’t use Object Manipulation on them, so he had to let it go for the time being.

Besides, no monster dared approach those stingers. He could leave them where they were until he had a way to handle them and then retrieve them to make a new flying sword.

Chen Yu dragged his exhausted slime body back to the nest. Slime Mother hadn’t returned yet; he squeezed past the little ones in the grass nest, felt a warm sensation from his stomach, and drowsily fell asleep.

When he woke again, he found the Moss Monster in his stomach had been completely digested and his slime body had undergone a strange change.

He felt himself bloating—not emotionally, but physically expanding. Some mysterious patterns had grown inside the gel. Whenever he willed it, darker-colored stomach fluid seeped from those gel patterns.

[Devour Digestion Lv.1 triggered — Moss Monster features fully recorded, acquired talent Acid Secretion Lv.1]

——

Race: Acidic Slime

Rank: Black Iron Lv.2 [EXP: 0/20]

Cultivation: Qi Refinement Lv.2 [Spiritual Energy: 16/20]

Life Status: Healthy [HP: 75/75]

Racial Talent: Devour Digestion Lv.1

Other Talent: Acid Secretion Lv.1

Skill List: Open Yuan Treasure Scroll Lv.4, Object Manipulation Lv.2

Reputation Title: None (an obscure slime)

——

So this stomach acid is actually the same acid as the Moss Monster’s?

Oh…

No wonder the color darkened.

He bounded out of the grass nest and imitated the Moss Monster, spraying acid.

Sssss!

A dark green acid sprayed onto the ground not far away, immediately hissing and spitting, emitting choking blue smoke.

Uh…

The power is terrifying, but its range doesn’t seem as far as the flying sword’s attack.

Chen Yu silently hopped back into the grass nest.

“Forget it. I should learn more Dao techniques. This talent might be useful in Xu Xuan Heaven.”

He curled up among a cluster of slimes, staring at his upgrade interface. He noticed his rank had risen to Black Iron Lv.2.

Chen Yu guessed ordinary slimes were Black Iron Lv.1. Creatures like Moss Monsters that secrete lethal acid could count as Black Iron Lv.2. Poison-stinger wasps were at least Black Iron Lv.2, possibly Black Iron Lv.3.

In any case, progress is good.

So far, though, he still hadn’t seen any monster use what could truly be called magic. Could monster talents also be a form of magic?